Wood Badge Patrol Names

Recommended Posts

What are the rarest names and is there a certain order that names are assigned in? When I went through it we had Beavers, Foxes, Eagles, Bob-Whites and judging by the response to some one of the posts below, those are fairly common patrols.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I'm not sure about rare names. There are standard Wood Badge patrol names and they do go in "Wood Badge order" starting with Beavers. It all depends on how many patrols make up your Troop whether you use the patrol names at the end of the order. I don't recall the names, but I've seen a list that included additional patrol names if your course has more than 8 patrols.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

While I in no way claim to be ant sort of an expert on Wood Badge and the Wood Badge Patrol names. It does seem to me that the Americans take this far more to heart then most other members of Troop 1 Gilwell do.

As a participant on the old Cub Scout Wood Badge (NE-CS-58) I was a member of the Bear Den. While I am a very proud Bear, I have to admit to not liking the picture of the Bear that is on a lot of the scout stuff. I see myself more as a Teddy Bear or Panda Bear. Of course with my now white thatch maybe a Polar Bear would be more in order?

That course was held at Hawk Mountain Pa. Two of the staff from Hawk Mountain that were involved in the course were from the old Exploring program and were members of the Lewis and Clark Patrols.

I first took Wood Badge at Gilwell Park, in the early 70's. The Courses do not have numbers and I'm unsure how they came up with the Patrol names. I can't remember all of them. I do remember that we had Wolves, Panthers, Kestrels,and Cuckoos. For my sins I am a Cuckoo. I am sure that you can guess how much and how often I get my leg pulled about that!!

With the new 21st Century Wood Badge, we are seeing courses that are much larger. In the past in our area we were lucky to get to Buffalo. It now in not uncommon to see an Antelope Patrol. The course that we hosted last year, we would have had a Raven Patrol, but we had some last minute drop outs.

The Brits are doing a really great job of marketing their new course to non-Scouting groups. Companies like British Airways and BT are sending their managers to take the course. Sad to say they no longer use patrol names.

Last time I was home in England, I had lunch with the Director of Communications at Gilwell Park, we got to talking about the Gilwell Reunion. He said that near the end of the weekend they sang the "Back To Gilwell" song. He was between an American and a fellow from Japan. They were singing their hearts out with tear rolling down there cheeks and the guys from England didn't know the words!!

I have served on more then a few courses as a staff member and once as Scoutmaster, I seem to have a mental block when it comes to the patrol order of the song. I either write it on the back of my hand or use a cheat sheet, most times the next patrol is up and ready without any prompting. Of course I always get to do a solo near the end being the only cuckoo.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Gillwell Park is where Baden-Powell held the very first Wood Badge. Every Wood Badge troop is called Troop 1 and the site is referred to as Gillwell wherever it may be held anywhere in the world. Do a google search and you can read the history of Gillwell.